


your eyes, my soul

by Hi0ctane



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Alternate Universe - YouTube, Derek and Stiles are YouTubers, Fluff, M/M, Werewolf Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 08:16:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16991337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hi0ctane/pseuds/Hi0ctane
Summary: 'Stilinski's Bestiary' denies the existence of werewolf mates. Derek Hale decides to disprove him.





	your eyes, my soul

**Author's Note:**

  * For [greenleaf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenleaf/gifts).



> This story is for howl-to-the-wind. I hope it finds you happy and well, and I hope this Christmas time brings you the biggest joy and brightness in your life. May your food be delicious and your presents plentiful, and may you always be surrounded by your loved ones! :) 
> 
> This is my first time delving into the YouTube AU. It was foreign to me, but I had a lot of fun, and I sincerely hope you (or anyone reading this, really!) have it, too.

It was Sunday morning when Derek Hale slunk into his family’s kitchen, still wearing a pair of loose pants and an oversized T-Shirt he had found in the back of his wardrobe. He was barefoot and craving coffee like nothing else in his life, despite having had what amounted to a proper night of sleep for once; college finals had been kicking his ass all week, but now, finally, things were settling down. Which also meant that Christmas was fast approaching – the calendar on the wall was set to the 16th of December, marking the day as part of the third advent weekend. 

“Morning,” he groaned, stepping foot into the warm and gently lit kitchen. His mother turned her head, leaning easily against the stove, and offered a small smile. 

“Finally risen from the dead? It’s almost eleven.” 

“Yeah, Derek,” Peter chimed from his spot at the kitchen table. He was already on his second – or maybe third – cup of coffee, grinning across the rim of the mug as his eyes zeroed in on the younger werewolf. “Listen to your mom. Getting up late is bad.” 

“You got into this very kitchen only thirty minutes ago, Peter,” Talia said with a shake of her head. “You’re not really one to talk.” 

“Finals are over,” Derek said in lieu of apologizing, shuffling towards the coffee maker to get his morning fix. He immediately felt a little more alive, sitting down on one of the comfortable chairs next to his uncle. “Which means I feel like coming back from my zombie-state now.”

“That's great! I was slowly getting annoyed with your gruff attitude all day. And, on top of that, I've been missing a new upload. Seriously, Derek, your last video is almost a month old!”, Peter threw in as he softly nudged his favourite nephew. 

Derek could see Cora in the nearby living room, lounging on one of the big sofas, her mobile in hand. She probably was busy texting her friend; after all she had just started her time at Beacon Hills College and was still a bit overwhelmed by, well, literally everything. Isaac sat on the floor close to her, lost in a book. Only Derek’s father and older sister Laura as well as the two Betas Erica and Boyd were missing in the picture – the extended Hale family did what they could to come together for the holidays, despite living in different households most of the time. 

“Even your crush managed to upload a video!”, Peter added with a grin, ripping Derek from his thoughts as he slowly opened his new laptop. There was a photo of himself set as the wallpaper - Peter being dressed in a suit, a startling green snake on his shoulder.  
“Ooops, I really don't know how that newest image of my modelling job found its way into my Desktop, but now that it is there - what do you think? I look good, right?”

Derek rolled his eyes fondly, but nodded his head. Peter's job choice had been a source of anguish to his mother and more than one reason for small, petty discussions in the Hale family, but now that he was taking in more and more good jobs the waves had sort of been smoothed over. 

“You look dashing,” he replied in his usual dry tone, before sobering up a little.

“What do you mean my - who uploaded a video?“ 

He tried to feign innocence, but probably failed. 

With a more than pleased expression on his face, Peter opened his YouTube, which was filled with some behind the scenes from his photoshoots and some ads he had done so far. Then he accessed the accounts he followed and turned the laptop a bit to the side, so that Derek could see more. 

“This one. Stilinski's Bestiary. He uploaded a new video titled 'The Myth of Werewolf Mates?'”

“Oh my God,“ Derek groaned, hiding his face behind his hands. There was a chuckle from the counter where Talia was still standing, flipping pancakes effortlessly but deciding not to comment on his, uhm, situation.

It wasn't a secret that he had a long-time crush for the boy that made those videos - Stiles, the sheriff's son, all-out supernatural enthusiast and pretty damn cute person, at least in Derek's eyes. He'd met him countless times through his mother's work as a state lawyer, and he'd grown fond of the smart kid with the big mouth. Didn't help that Stiles went to the same college he did by now, and that he made YouTube-videos about the supernatural - much like Derek liked to do in his free time.

Derek had created videos for years now. In the beginning it had been nothing but spite: he was annoyed by all the reporters and magazines that almost harassed his family to get information about the Hale pack, about everyone in it. He was used to being somewhat of a celebrity in Beacon Hills - after all his mother was really well known, and also kind of a big shot among werewolves.

It didn't help that his uncle, Peter, was showing off wherever he could, but never giving away information about the pack or his family. And even though Peter could talk about himself for hours to come, the reporters wanted more than how his latest photoshoot went and what kind of pets he had as a child. His mother never gave interviews, unless they were about her job. Cora had turned to flicking the middle finger and Isaac (actually he wasn't a Hale per se, but after Talia had bitten him, and his father had died, they had taken him in and he lived here and he really was something of a second son to her by now) simple avoided them whenever he could. 

Derek had taken a more direct approach: he had begun to take videos where he talked about packs, structures, Alphas, Rogues, laws and more. He took them, at home. He decided what he talked about and when he uploaded it. And most important: the videos were available to everyone who wanted to see them. Since then the reporters had mostly stopped to bother him. 

But he had gained quite a following on YouTube by now. And, from time to time, he also liked to watch the videos of other creators, such as Stiles. The boy sometimes blabbered in his videos, but he really had the cutest of smiles and his wit was something to behold. Derek had met him in passing, but somehow they had never really talked with each other. Stiles had always blushed and often turned to talk to one of his friends, and the excuse to be here to drive Cora home didn't give Derek a good reason to stick around for too long...

“Come on, don't leave me waiting,” he said to his uncle, inching a little closer to the laptop. His family knew about his little infatuation, but usually didn't comment on it; Derek was pretty sure they wouldn't stand in the way if he wanted to go for it, but since he had never really made any attempts to they just sat back and watched his non-existent love life from the sidelines. Sure, there were girls that showed interest in him in College or downtown, but for some reason they never felt right to him, and Derek just... wasn't interested. 

Maybe this stupid crush was a little deeper than he thought, himself. 

Peter finally indulged him, pressing the starting button of the video.

Instantly Stiles' face popped into view, wearing incredibly stupid, woolly reindeer antlers on his head that jingled with every movement. 

“Hello my _deer_ watchers and listeners and, if you get the programme for it, I guess even readers! Hullo!” Stiles exclaimed with a big grin, shaking his head so that the horns made a happy jingly sound. 

“Today I want to sink down with you into the realm of mysteries! See, one werewolf in my class suddenly dropped the word 'Mate', but every time I wanted to ask about it, he evaded me. It either was my fault and he didn't want to talk to me, oooor maybe he knew that he wouldn't be able to give me an answer?"”

Stiles' eyebrow wiggled into the camera. “You see, in the wild, wolves have a season for mating, and it's the Alpha pair that leaves the pack for a while to produce offspring. So 'mating' in the wild is basically nothing but having hopefully amazing sex to reproduce. Now, we're not talking about wolves here, but werewolves, and similar to us humans they don't just have sex for the means or reproduction, but also because it's fun! I guess at least that it’s fun, I don't know... yet! But I will one day!”

The boy in the video huffed, and there was a cut before he removed the headband with the horns and placed them on the table in front of them. “Ooookay! We don't talk about my non-existent sex life! Now back to the topic: Mates! Do werewolves have mates? What exactly is a mate? Is it a partner destined by fate? Is it unavoidable and you don’t have a say in it because genes or fate decide who you will end up with? Or is it the love of your live, waiting for you and your werewolfness to find them? But what if Mates are actually nothing but a fairy tale? I have found no evidence whatsoever, be it on the Internet or in a library, that really deals with this topic. It is occasionally mentioned that someone and the mate were doing something - but this could just be the wolf term for 'partner'. So, I question you all? Do you think mates exist? Like in true mates? Soulmates? So far I think it's nothing but a werewolf fairy tale for the little ones to sleep better! Stiles out!”

„…“ 

Derek looked at the video with wide eyes, feeling the very hint of a blush creeping up his neck. He didn’t just go there. Stiles didn’t just…

“He actually went there,” Peter said, and the amusement in his voice was palpable. “He dove straight into the mate debate.” 

“I can’t believe it,” Derek said with a groan, rubbing a hand across his face. Jesus. Mates were… a delicate topic, even among werewolves. There were plenty that just didn’t like the term or the very idea of it, but among wolves there was no discussion that it did, in fact, exist. Humans, on the other hand, had a tendency to not understand the weight of it all, the fact that a werewolf would go to lengths and bounds to find and please his destined soulmate. 

“You should definitely record an answer to that,” Peter suggested sweetly. He sipped his coffee.  
“You know, to prove your point. And to make sure the people out there remember that you and your vids exist.” 

“I second that!”, Cora threw in from the living room, tilting her head so that she could look at them.  
“And seriously! What did he have on his head! What was that?”

“Antlers, I guess,” Isaac piped up from the floor. He smirked at Derek, who gave him his best ‘you too?’ stare before sighing in defeat. 

“Can't really leave it at that now, can I? Urgh… fine.” 

Derek felt a prickle of discontent on the back of his neck. He growled to himself, then downed his coffee in one go. 

“Let's make a video.”

_______________________________

 

Stiles nibbled on the piece of bread, his eyes scanning the information on the screen in front of him. He had already finished his assignments for the Christmas holiday, but while writing an essay about the probability of a murder in winter compared to summer, he was busy researching data about the impact of human population in regards to weather changes. Maybe murders happened more in regions with unstable weather – as if nature itself wanted to get rid of too many inhabitants that raided its resources. 

He rubbed his eyes and leaned back with a groan. Maybe this was a stupid idea. His Dad would probably scold him for it, saying that he should be happy about his finished assignments and just enjoy this break. But how could he enjoy it? He wasn't allowed to help his Dad with his cases, Lydia and Jackson were in Europe, Scott was with his current girlfriend and ignoring him as usual. Danny was also travelling to – somewhere, and everything was better than just staring at Derek Hale's face over and over again. 

Yes, he had some photos of the werewolf on his mobile. He had often snatched them when he had arrived in his awesome car to pick up his sister. Recently he hadn't seen him that much, even though they were at the same College now. A small part of Stiles had actually hoped that he would have the chance to actually talk to Derek and maybe ask him for a date. Yeah, he knew that his chances probably weren't too high, regarding all the pretty people swarming Derek usually. But well, it was worth a try, right? 

Only problem was that he hadn't seen him so far. But at least he could see him in his videos and comment a lot. And make his own videos, of course.

He closed the weather related pages and opened his YouTube, reading some of the comments. He was creating videos for a while now, actually ever since Scott got bitten by a werewolf. He had been interested in the supernatural anyway, but that moment had been a trigger for his YouTube career. 

He didn't have too many followers, but it was fun creating this videos, to talk about Scott's symptoms, how to help with them, how to deal with your first full moon, moon phases, claws and so on. And when Lydia turned out to be a Banshee, he turned his werewolf centric videos to everything supernatural he could find. And thus the Bestiary had been born!

The project kept him pleasantly busy and filled the void that he had been stuck in after High School. It had been... weird, seeing all his friends flit into different directions. Sure, he was happy with his college major, and he loved the work (which very likely still made him a nerd not only by association at this point), but losing the close contact to some of his friends? Yeah, that had been a bummer. Good thing that he had his videos, and his observations. Beacon Hill's supernatural community always gave him something to talk about, his newest vid not being an exception here. 

Mates... the time had come up a couple times already, but there was literally nothing to find on the topic. It had to be a fairy tale, and elaborate hoax then, right?

He had been aware that there would be an influx of messages that would loudly disagree with him and as he looked through them, he realised that they were actually softer voiced than he had anticipated. Every werewolf he had asked about it, had avoided the topic. And neither the Internet, nor any book he found, was really able to help him. And if there was no solid evidence of something, then it must be untrue. Right? 

Stiles sighed and gulped down the bread, just as a notification popped up. Derek Hale had uploaded a new video! Finally!

He clicked the link almost immediately, crossing his legs and leaning forward in excitement. The video screen came on within seconds, and the handsome, slightly rugged face of the older werewolf looked at him from the loading screen. 

The video title gave him a pause, however. “The myth of werewolf mates – a reaction.” Huh. 

Stiles started the video. 

Derek looked a little tired, but handsome as ever, clad in a Henley and jeans and sitting cross-legged on the bed of what had to be his room. There was a simple wall behind him, no distractions, nothing personal, but Stiles still felt a prickle of excitement at such a private video setting. 

“Earlier today I had the pleasure of watching a video on the topic of werewolf mates,” Derek began after a short introduction. Stiles had to concentrate on his words to not end up getting lost in his handsome features. 

“The video stated that Mates are probably a fairy tale. As a werewolf myself I’m actually affronted at that notion. Fairy tales? Really? My parents are recognized mates, had been for over two decades now. I grew up not only with the concept of it, but with the true meaning behind those easily spoken words. Mates, soulmates, are much more than a loose concept that’s told to make the children sleep at night. They’re real, and they’re more powerful than anyone could explain in a few short YouTube-clips. So I am going to speak out an invitation to the maker of the video: Meet up with me. Let me explain you the concept of mates in person. Meet me on Wednesday evening at the diner you used to frequent with your friends, back in high school. I will be there, and I am going to tell you everything I know if you dare to confront me about it.”

Stiles mouth simply fell open and he stared. He stared and stared. And then he replayed the video, running a hand through his outgrown hair. 

“...oh my gosh... Derek Hale told me to meet him. Derek Hale told me to meet him...” 

He felt as if his head was going to explode, and even though a part of him almost felt offended that his video had been filled with wrong information (seriously, his videos were always right and so well researched! He prided himself in that!), the other part of him was bursting with excitement. He would meet Derek. 

He quickly moved closer to his laptop, opened the comment section and typed ‘Had I known that all it took to get a date with you was to post a video you didn't agree with, I would have done that way sooner.’ But then he hesitated. Should he really send it out? 

It wasn't an actual date, he tried to tell himself. He just wanted to give him real information about the mate topic. 

So he deleted the comment, and just typed ‘Will be there. 6pm.’

The comment received a like almost immediately, from Derek himself. 

Shit. This was real. 

Stiles jumped to his feet, looking at the video, the comment, the little, almost unimportant like. His heart was beating heavily. He would meet Derek fucking Hale next week.

He tried to force himself to calm down. This probably meant nothing. But still, he couldn't fully contain his excitement. He would meet him. They would talk. And maybe... just maybe...?

Stiles couldn’t wait for next week to roll around. 

_________________________________

When Wednesday finally rolled around Derek found himself early at the Diner, stepping in and trying not to roll his eyes at the Christmas music already blaring from the speakers. A waiter waved at him and promised to be over soon, and he nodded, finding a seat in a corner. 

He’d see Stiles today, eye to eye. His heart was already doing cartwheels in his chest. Derek still wasn’t sure if it had been a dumb idea altogether, but shit, he couldn’t leave things as they were. Stiles absolute ignorance to a topic this dear to Derek couldn’t be ignored. 

He ordered a cup of coffee and waited, watching the cars outside with a little flutter in his chest. He told himself he wasn’t nervous, but alas, it seemed to be a lie. 

And soon he spotted the familiar blue Jeep. It parked just across the street and Stiles got out only seconds later, almost falling out of the car. He flailed a bit and looked around, looking relieved when he realised that no one was staring at him. 

No one he could see at least.

Derek looked at him, not hiding the grin that crept up his face. Stiles looked... dishevelled, really. His hair was a mess like he'd run his hands through them countless times, and there was a hint of red on his cheeks after nearly crashing face-first into the street. 

To Derek he looked... good. No, not only good, actually breathtaking. He blinked. This was way worse than he'd thought. And the soft pull he felt deep in his core didn't make it one inch better. 

A pull towards Stiles. A pull he'd been swallowing down anytime they met before.

A pull that reminded him of the reason he had asked for that meeting in the first place. 

Derek watched Stiles cross the street and realised that he was, by far, not the only one being nervous about this. Stiles hopped in, then looked around. His eyes widened as he spotted Derek, and the werewolf wondered briefly how deep that blush went. Then he slowly approached him, holding out his hand rather awkwardly. 

“Hey...!”

“Hey.” Derek stood up, shaking his hand without hesitation. Despite the outside cold Stiles hand felt warm, and the touch sent a pleasant spark through his very core. He had to hold himself back from keeping that smaller, softer hand in his own. 

“Come on, sit down with me. I'm not going to bite you,” he promised, despite flashing his teeth for good measure. “What would you like to drink?“

"Heh... w...ater's fine!", Stiles babbled out as he sat down. His eyes clearly roamed over Derek's form and even though he moved his hand through his hair, he was not able to hide a shiver that ran down his body. 

“So... uhm. I'm Stiles, but you probably know that... yeah, you know that. Okay, that was stupid...“

“I do know who you are,” Derek said, and his voice dropped a little. Everything happened on an instinctual level - despite only being a beta in the pack Derek found himself going for the impressive, masculine drop of his voice, a smirk that made Stiles visibly weak. His whole instinct ran wild, seeing the boy like this - wanting to touch and to hold and to claim already, curiosity and want overriding reason. 

Yeah, he was aware what it was from the first second he'd seen him from a distance, back when they both were still kids and he had no real word for it. And over the years it had only festered, grown, like a wonderful little flower he'd carried inside of himself without really knowing how important it was. The desire to have Stiles in his life, to claim him as his soulmate. 

They ordered Stiles a water as requested, and Derek's eyes went back to his face, looking for anything in his features. A recognition. A feeling. 

“You know why I asked you to come?”

It was clear that Stiles was nervous, but it was even clearer that he found him attractive. 

“Eh... because you wanted to prove to me that mates, or soulmates, actually exist?”, he asked, glancing at his face. Derek couldn't see what Stiles was feeling or thinking. He could, however, analyse what he gave him: scent, looks, actions. He was attracted to him, he found him hot. His lower voice made him shiver. 

But what else was there that he couldn't see?

Derek wanted to know. He wanted to see, to feel, to experience, he wanted Stiles for his own and as his own. The feeling of desire was strong enough that he found himself shivering lightly. 

Goddammit. 

“Exactly. I'm here to explain to you - and show you - that the whole matter of mates do in fact exist.” 

He trailed off, looking into those beautiful brown eyes. Part of him wanted to spill everything all at once. The other wanted Stiles to find out himself.

“Oh... okay...” Stiles said with a nod, leaning forward slightly. “But you got to run this past me first. How do you know for sure that mates exist?”

_Because I feel it, right now,_ Derek wanted to blurt out. The warmth under his skin was spreading like a fire. 

“Because I am aware of their existence. Because I understand that there is a pull for each werewolf, a pull drawing them towards the person best suited for them.”

Stiles' pupils widened at that and he sat back, something akin to sadness tinting his scent. “... so you're saying you're feeling such a pull right now, and that's how you know...?” he asked with a little tremble in his voice.

“All I'm saying is that I can explain it to you,” Derek said, not giving a simple yes or no answer. Part of him wanted to explain it outright, to wipe this sadness off Stiles’ face. 

“Let's do it like this. I explain some things a werewolf, or their mate, can feel when the connection between them starts to tighten. You think about how that might feel, if you could imagine feeling like this at all. Alright? See it as a simple thought exercise.”

“Huh...?” Stiles just raised an eyebrow at Derek, utterly confused as the waitress brought their drinks and left again with a smile. “I don't really... understand why, but… okay, sure. I’m game. Go ahead?”

“Okay. Close your eyes. Listen to me.” 

Derek folded his hands, watching Stiles closely. The way his eyes fluttered shut, the way he got comfortable. 

“At first you just feel a little pull of something. Like desire, or want. You see him, maybe, somewhere in the city, and you realize he looks... good, so good you can't even put it in words. You think about him a lot in the following days, weeks, maybe months. Every time you see him you feel a little tongue-tied because there's all this want, all this desire you can't voice without coming across like an utter creep. And then, one day, he touches you.” 

He paused, for effect. His mind didn’t even register clearly that he had gone for ‘him’ right away, not making a secret out of his interest in men. 

“His touch is like a spark of fire, like electricity, like the best thing ever. You feel drawn to him, and you want to keep touching him, run your fingers through his hair maybe, and there's this little thing inside you, like this sort of singing voice that tells you it's him...”

“...” 

Stiles' eyes slowly fluttered open, pupils wide. And he stared. His scent turned from confusion to wonder, to disbelief. He pressed his lips together and then nodded. 

“Just, ah… one thing.” He swallowed, visibly. “Can this be one sided...?” 

It came out in almost a whisper, doubt clearly audible.

“No,” Derek said, his voice a little thicker than he himself had anticipated. “This never is. What you feel your mate feels, too.”

“S...so...”, Stiles began. His fingers curled around the glass and he gulped, not taking his eyes off Derek even for a second. “What if I say... that this sounds awfully familiar...?”

“Then I can only agree,” Derek replied, the faintest hint of a smile on his face. His heart had finally, ultimately settled down in his chest, every single one of his senses relaxing. His very core was still humming, however, picking up the pattern of Stiles' beating heart, syncing his own with it. “And say that I feel the same.”

Stiles stared at him and was silent for a bit. He even glanced down, gazing into the glass of water, as if he had trouble believing all this. But when he looked back up, there was a certain determination in his eyes. His fingers uncurled from the glass and he reached out, almost touching Derek's fingers...

...and Derek reached out himself, closing his fingers around Stiles' hand. There it was again, the tell-tale spark of warmth, of desire and need to be with him, close to him, all wrapped in the feeling of wonderful static. He wanted him. And Stiles clearly felt it, too, the way his eyes went wide as saucers opposite him.

“Holy macaroni...” Derek heard Stiles utter with a gasp, before he turned his hand and intertwined their fingers with a silent laugh and a smile. “This feels cool!”

They kept on holding hands, the warm pulse of something between then, passing back and forth like an echo. Derek let out a breath he hadn't know he'd been holding. “It's you, Stiles,” he said quietly, smile back on his lips. “You're my mate.”

The strange scent from before had faded completely. It was replaced by something that smelled like cinnamon... And before he knew what was happening, Derek found himself being dragged forward, as Stiles leaned towards him until he could fully reach him, arms around his neck. By now Stiles was almost fully lying on the table, but all that Derek heard and saw and felt was his happy laugh in his ear. 

“This is the best day ever!”

___________________________

The video began with cheesy Christmas music playing before the face of Stiles appeared from below until he was seated right in the middle. He sat on a bed, wearing jeans, Star Wars socks and a hoodie that was way too big for him. 

“Hello there! I first want to apologise that I didn't show any new videos for so long! Buuuut… I was sort of busy this Christmas!”

He let out a giggle. 

“You probably all know that I met with Derek Hale to discuss the topic of werewolf mates. And guess what, I have to tell you all that they are not a fairy tale. Soulmates are real. And how do I know that? Well, ask my sourwolf here.”

The camera moved a little to the side, showing Derek who sat right next to him on the bed. Their legs were touching, and Derek let out a huff at the pet name, looking at Stiles with an expression of warm fondness in his eyes. 

“Well, Stiles and I had a long talk that evening,” Derek said into the camera, matter-of-factly. “I told him how it feels to recognize your soulmate, and he found a shocking number of parallels with his own situation. And mine, too, to be honest. So he understood the wonders of mates first-hand, so to speak.” 

Stiles laughed quietly as Derek etched forward, wrapping an arm around Stiles' middle and drawing him against his front, framing his lighter body with his legs and putting his chin on his shoulder from behind. “Stiles is my mate. And he'll surely be able to explain you all about this in the future, straight from his own experiences.”

“And trust me! I will do that! And sorry to all of out there....” Stiles' grin widened as he turned his head and kissed Derek. “He's mine now. He's always been mine.”

“This is abhorrently cute,” Peter said as he closed his laptop to the image of Derek and Stiles kissing softly in front of the camera. Next to him Laura and Talia were making a soft little 'awww' sound, and Cora and Isaac pretended to be disgusted while actually laughing under their breath. 

Peter, however, just smiled fondly to himself. So his favourite nephew finally had his little Christmas miracle. Things couldn't be better.


End file.
